How does Quality 4.0 affect innovation performance? An empirical study from the Yangtze River Delta region of China

Purpose Despite the critical role of quality management in the Industry 4.0 era, often referred to as Quality 4.0, there remains a shortage of literature and empirical studies on the subject. This study explores whether Quality 4.0, as an innovative practice in quality management, truly contributes to improving the innovation performance of companies. Furthermore, it examines the heterogeneity of company ownership and business types. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a Coupling Coordination Degree Model (CCDM), a fundamental method to analyse the coordination development between two subsystems or composite systems. Specifically, its focus is to measure the coupling coordination degree between digital transformation and quality management, serving as a metric for determining Quality 4.0 maturity. Furthermore, to explore the relationship between Quality 4.0 and innovation performance, the study utilises a panel dataset of 270 A-share listed enterprises located in China’s Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Findings The research reveals several key insights: (1) Enterprises situated within the YRD region exhibit a general increase in Quality 4.0 maturity, with Jiangsu and Anhui provinces showing the most substantial progress. (2) Quality 4.0 exerts a significant effect on innovation performance, with evidence supporting an “inverted U-shaped” relationship in this context. (3) Quality 4.0 has a favourable impact on innovation performance in both state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs, with a notably stronger effect observed in SOEs. (4) Quality 4.0 appears to be a major contributor to innovation for non-high-tech enterprises compared to high-tech enterprises. Originality/value This study contributes several innovative insights to the field. Firstly, it sheds light on the effects of Quality 4.0 on innovation performance, which has not been extensively explored previously. Secondly, this research stands out by employing the coupling coordination degree between quality management and digital transformation as a metric to assess Quality 4.0 maturity. Thirdly, previous research often simplified the assessment of quality management maturity into a binary scale. This study introduces a more sophisticated and detailed evaluation methodology, leveraging the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) for a quantitative analysis of maturity level. Consequently, this research enhances the existing body of knowledge by offering a more in-depth and comprehensive understanding of Quality 4.0.